Back home for a day

For the past two years Nikitha Linga has missed celebrating Holi, one of her favorite festivals, because she’s been miles from home.

Linga remembers celebrating Holi back home in India with dancing, color fights and bong, a drink that gets you high, she said

The Asian Culture Center staged its own Holi festival Wednesday at Collins Living-Learning Center to give students like Linga the chance to connect back home.

Linga said festivals are a part of life in India. It’s a way for family and friends to connect to each other and the culture.

“And since we are in the U.S. and don’t have family here, we get to have fun we’d be missing right now and connect back to home,” Linga said.

Holi is a Hindu holiday in India that celebrates the coming of spring, ACC Student Coordinator and Holi organizer Vivian Chen said.

This year’s Holi festival was originally scheduled April 4 but was rescheduled because of bad weather.

“It would have been nice if the weather let us do it when planned,” Chen said. “We’ve been worried about attendance because it’s in the middle of Little 5.”

Chen’s fears were confirmed when only about 200 students showed up. In previous years the event attracted 350 to 400 students, she said.

Shesaid she’s still hopeful for the years to come, even though this year’s festival was less attended.

“Everyone should come and have fun,” Chen said. “Even if they didn’t come this year they should definitely come next year.”

But the event had more to offer to students this year with tissue paper flower crafts, henna workshops, dance demos, food catered from Taste of India and, as always, the color war.

“It’s really a lot of fun,” ACC student staff member Laura Baumann said. “We really just want to get a lot of people here and get a lot of color on them.”

Other than to just host a fun event, the ACC also hopes to bring multicultural awareness to campus, Chen said.

“A lot of Indiana people know there is Indian and Asian culture, but they don’t know much about it,” Chen said. “Definitely part of it is for us to have fun, but also to get the word out there to show the many facets of the different cultures all around campus.”

Chen said she thinks it’s important for people to be aware of how America sometimes adapts foreign cultures to form their own.

“Everyone knows the color run, but no one knows about Holi,” Chen said. “But that’s where the color run came form. I mean, we get colored powder from India, and it’s nice to show where it originated from.” 

Holi is one of the bigger events the ACC plans each year, student staff member Vivian Ge said.

“Not only is it a lot of fun, but it allows everyone to participate whether you’re students or not and whether you’re Indian or not,” Ge said.

Though the festival is smaller this year and smaller than back in India, Linga said it’s better than nothing. It helps her feel less far from home.

“It’s important because I get to meet people, and I miss home a lot,” Linga said. “This helps me feel like I’m not so far away from my culture.”